Patent attributes
A method for securing user data that is stored to a tape cartridge having a medium auxiliary memory (MAM) is described. When user data is sent to a tape library from a client, the tape library sends a request to a cloud based key management service for a data key to encrypt the user data and an encrypted data key that corresponds to the data key. The data key is used to encrypt the user data which is then stored to the tape cartridge and the encrypted data key is stored to the MAM. Upon decrypting the encrypted user data, the encrypted data key is extracted from the MAM and sent to the cloud based key management service where it is used to produce the data key from the cloud based key management service which is then sent to the tape library. When the tape library is in possession of the data key, the encrypted data in the tape cartridge can then be decrypted and sent to a requester of the user data.
